Communication on ‘a Europe that delivers: Institutional options for making the European Union’s work more efficient’

The document presents various options, within the existing Treaty framework, for making the European Union's work more efficient. It includes work on the following topics:

+ Continuation of the Lead Candidates experiment, building on the 2014 'Spitzenkandidaten' experience and highlighting the link between national and European parties;
+ The composition of the European Parliament for the 2019-2024 term and the size of the future European Commission;
+ A single President for the European Union, merging the work conducted by the European Commission and European Council presidents;
+ Citizens' Dialogues and other initiatives that contribute for closer relations between EU institutions and its citizens.

The Communication is accompanied by a Recommendation on enhancing the European nature and efficient conduct of the 2019 elections to the European Parliament, updating and complementing some elements of its Recommendation of 2013.

Background information:

The proposed ideas and options are a direct follow-up to the European Commission's report on the 2014 European Parliament elections which pledged to identify ways of further enhancing the European dimension and the democratic legitimacy of the EU decision-making process, and to examine further, and seek to address, the reasons for the persistently low turnout in some Member States.

The European Commission published on 14 February 2018 a Communication setting out a number of options that could contribute to improving the European Union's efficiency and the connections between EU institutions and citizens.